Questions to Ask your Wedding Photographer
Investing in your wedding photographer is one of the best things you can do for your wedding. It is the one thing you will have to remember your wedding day by. You want to ensure you are getting quality and ensuring that your photos are safe until they are delivered. So here are some questions to ask your wedding photographer when you start searching!
Ask to see MULTIPLE galleries
As a luxury wedding photographer in Arizona, I find it SO important for my couples to see multiples galleries of weddings that I have shot as a lead shooter. Not as a second shooter, and not a styled shoot. A real wedding, where I was the one shooting the wedding. Why is this important? Because it shows how I handle a wedding day on my own. Not in a controlled lighting situation. There are so many different wedding day challenges because no wedding day goes off 100% how you planned. It shows how I direct my couples throughout the day. So make sure you look at ATLEAST 2-3 full wedding galleries from photographers you are looking to invest in.
How do they use flash/Handle different lighting situations
This portion is SO important. Being an Arizona wedding photographer, I get thrown in so many different lighting situations depending on the venues and/or the time of year the wedding is. From getting ready rooms with NO windows for natural light, to ceremony/receptions that are both inside and outside. Are these going to the beautiful golden hour natural light portraits you see posted on social media? No. But they should still be consistent with the photographers work throughout the day. It should also be the same throughout that portion of the wedding. A great example of this would be at Melissa and Marks wedding in Douglas, Arizona.
Turn Around Time
You should be able to have a clear outline of two things for turn around time. The first being when you will receive a sneak peek of your wedding photos after the wedding day. The second being when you will receive your full gallery. Being in the luxury market for Phoenix and Scottsdale weddings, I will send a sneak peek to my couples within 24 hours. I do this because I love being able to give them the full luxury Brittany Nemec Photography wedding experience. Depending on the season, I guarantee the full gallery delivery between 4-6 weeks, with the industry standard being 6-8 weeks. Since I know how excited my couples and their friends and family get to see all of the photos, I try to deliver before this. Make sure these guidelines are explained in the contract you sign with your wedding photographer.
Backup for images day of and files after the wedding day
If anything, this is one of the MOST important questions to ask your wedding photographer. Your images are what you’re going to have to remember your special day by. MAKE SURE THESE IMAGES ARE SAFE! I created an Instagram post/reel explaining my full backup method for during the wedding, as well as after the wedding. From shooting dual cards, to backing up on multiple sources. Your wedding photographer should have multiple ways of backing up your images from start to finish.
